Suhila Abd el-Salam, the sister of Hamas Prime Minister in Gaza,
Ismail Haniyeh, accompanied her husband for treatment in an Israeli
hospital four months ago. According to Israel’s Ynet News, the
sister’s husband was admitted to Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikva,
for immediate medical treatment following a serious heart condition.

Because Gaza hospitals could not properly treat the condition,
Haniyeh’s sister and her husband requested permission to travel to
Israel to receive the necessary medical treatment. The husband was
taken by a Palestinian ambulance across the Erez crossing, where he
was transferred to an Israeli MDA ambulance. He was taken to the
hospital with his wife, who was with him during the entire week until
his condition stabilized.

The couple could have gone to a more advanced medical center in Egypt
but opted to come to Israel for medical treatment instead.

According to the Ynet report, Israeli sources have refused to address
the report and Beilinson hospital said that it could not offer any
details on the visit.

This was not the first time that a Gaza resident was treated in
Israel. This past March, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy transported to
the Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot after suffering from severe
burns and shrapnel injuries from an alleged rocket launching pad that
was set up in Jabalya, a neighborhood in northern Gaza.

Israel’s Civil Administration released a report in March stating that
115,000 Palestinians were treated in Israel in 2011, a 13% increase
in comparison to the previous year. “Every year more patients are
sent to Israeli hospitals,” said Dalia Bassa, Civil Administration
Health Coordinator. Over 100 Palestinian doctors interned at Israeli
hospitals and five organ transplants were performed to save the lives
of Palestnian patients treated in Israel.

Furthermore, data published in the World Health Organization’s
February 2012 report reflected the efforts of both the Coordinator of
Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) and the Israeli
government to facilitate passage of Palestinian patients from Gaza to
Israelis hospitals. According to the published data, over 90% of
requests for medical treatment at Israeli hospitals were approved and
carried out.

The sister and brother-in-law of Ismail al-Haniyeh were no exception
to this Israeli government policy of treating medical cases.